It Feels Like Im Human Again
by AsgardsValkyrie
Summary: New Moon AU. Bella doesn't fall into a deep depressive state when the Cullens leave, and instead she takes charge of her life, improving her relationship with her father and friends. Through extreme circumstances, Angela and Jessica are exposed to the supernatural world, and they, along with Bella, work with the wolf pack to protect Forks from an impending vampire threat.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

**Summary:** AU of New Moon in which Bella bounces back from her relationship with Edward instead of falling into a depressive state.

* * *

Bella started at the cracks in her ceiling forlornly, trying to ignore the empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. She'd been laying in bed for four days now, and besides drinking the water her father her and picking over the sandwiches he made, she hadn't moved much. She was still in the same clothes from four days ago, from when Sam Uley had found her in the woods and brought her home. The only consolation was that her shoes were off, although it wasn't like her bed could get any worse. She, and her sheets, were covered in dirt, leaves, and splashes of mud. Her body felt gross, her skin itchy, but she lacked the energy to roll out of bed and do something about it.

The four days spent in bed had been spent trying not to think about her current situation, but then thinking about it anyways, the thoughts playing on repeat in her head. Her father kept gently asking her what happened, but Bella had just shaken her head and remained silent. How could she explain to her father that she had been played by a family of vampires?

Laying in bed had given her a lot of time to think, and once she got going, she couldn't stop. She began to analyze every interaction that she had with the Cullens, and she finally saw what made her father so wary of Edward.

A few years ago, when Bella was still living in Arizona with her mom, she'd had to write a paper for health class about toxic and abusive relationships. She'd spent weeks going through databases to find information on warning signs, how to spot them, and how to safely remove oneself from the situation. After working her ass off on that paper, the information was permanently ingrained in her head.

However, it was like moving to Forks had made her forget everything she'd learned.

After spending four days curled up into a ball, Bella was forced to confront the very real, very unhealthy nature of her relationship with Edward. She was always guilted into wearing things she didn't want to wear, going places where she didn't want to go, not being allowed to drive herself anywhere or spend time with who she wanted, being told that she couldn't make her own choices and that it was "for her own good".

Edward and his family had done all of those things to her, and she never questioned it, just kept retreating further and further into herself so she wouldn't upset them.

Every interaction with the Cullens had made her feel like she was walking through a field of landmines, heart beating furiously in her chest as she worked to avoid any explosions.

She wore what Alice told her to wear because it made the smaller girl happy. She let Edward choose how she got around town and when she could go out, let him dictate when it was time for her to eat and sleep, just to appease him. Gorging herself on Esme's food so that her feelings wouldn't get hurt. Not expressing her concerns over Emmett manhandling her, or about how poorly Rosalie treated her.

Bella spent a year of her life being okay with not being treated with basic human decency. Didn't she deserve happiness? Didn't she deserve respect?

Edward treated her like she was made of glass, as if she would die without him guiding her through life. But being human didn't make her invalid. She survived without the Cullens for, what, sixteen years of her life? Bella seriously doubted that she'd spontaneously combust without being babysat.

Inhaling deeply, Bella gagged as her nostrils filled with the awful stench of her body odor, reminding her that she hadn't showered in several days and that she was currently laying in a pile of her own filth. She supposed that going so long without a shower wasn't really doing much to prove that she didn't need a babysitter.

Bella sat up slowly, closing her eyes for a second to get herself together. The room spun a bit, no doubt a result of her suddenly being upright after being horizontal for so long. She reached for the glass of water her father had placed on the bedside table and sipped it slowly, humming contentedly at the wall the cool liquid slid down her dry throat.

She placed the glass back down and slowly got to her feet, stretching her leg muscles, grimacing at the mud print she left on her sheets. Bella tugged off her clothes, tossing them in the laundry hamper, then took the sheets and blanket off her bed. Peeling both off proved to be a challenge as she struggled not to make an even bigger mess on the floor. After stuffing the filthy fabrics away, Bella grabbed her bag of toiletries, a towel and rag, and slipped into the bathroom.

The scorching hot shower that followed was downright heavenly, dirt and leaves washing away down the drain. The scent of her strawberry shampoo and conditioner was a comfort, made her feel better already as her hair improved from its previous matted and sweaty state. She washed herself thoroughly, enjoying the feeling of the water beating into her skin.

The shower gave her time to think about what she was going to do next.

She wouldn't heal from Cullen induced damage right away, but recognizing the issue and citing several examples was the first step to recovery. Now that she could see how toxic Edward and his family were, she was better equipped to protect herself should they ever decide to cross paths with her again.

The main issue was making sure she didn't fall for their same tricks again.

Her self esteem was low, had been for several years, and Edward had made her feel special; the handsome, heartthrob of the school focusing on the plain Jane. She had fallen for his charm hook, line, and sinker. She supposed it was also due to his natural vampiric nature; vampires were natural predators, and so it made sense that Edward was able to mold her to easily without her even realizing. All they had to do was dazzle her and she was putty in their hands.

And now, with their sudden departure, she had collapsed in on herself and become bedridden, as if going through withdrawal. Normal breakups shouldn't be like this. She shouldn't have been borderline comatose without them, as if their presence was her only lifeline.

The water started to get cold, so Bella turned the shower off and got out, wrapping the fluffy towel around her. Standing in front of the sink, Bella wiped at the mirror to clear the fog. Plugging in the blowdryer, she turned it on low and used the brush to slowly work the tangles out of her hair as she dried it. Finally clean and put together, her hair fell in waves down her back.

After brushing her teeth and cleaning up her hair, Bella went back to her room and turned on the lights, inhaling sharply at the stinging sensation in her eyes. She'd been in the dark for way too long.

The next forty five minutes were spent moisturizing, getting dressed, and making her room less like a landfill. She picked up the dirty clothes on the floor and put them in the hamper, and moved the hamper by the door so that she could do laundry later. She put fresh sheets on her bed, smoothing out the wrinkles. As Bella moved to go open the window, she looked at herself in the floor length mirror hanging from her closet door.

The dark blue jeans, forest green sweater, and dark brown ankle boots was a decent ensemble, and she was impressed that had the balls to wear shoes with a heel, although the heel wasn't very large. Just two inches, and thick, so she was sure she wouldn't fall too much. While she still looked pale and tired, she looked significantly less dead.

Bella opened the curtains and the blinds, allowing thin rays of sunshine to filter in through the room. The ground was wet, telling Bella that it had rained very recently, but the roads didn't look too bad. After being in the house for four days, Bella actually wanted to go outside and get some fresh air, although she doubted her father would let her take another walk after what happened the last time. She wondered if Charlie would want to go out with her, maybe get something to eat.

Just as she turned away from the window with the intent of going downstairs to find him, her door opened, and Charlie stood in the doorway, gaping at her.

They stared at each other for a moment before Bella finally broke the moment with a hoarse, "Hey."

Charlie crossed her bedroom in just four steps and pulled her into a hug, and that's when the dam broke. Bella sobbed into his chest, finally letting herself truly feel for the first time in a while. Bella felt wetness seeping onto her shoulder, and she guessed that he was crying, too.

Charlie finally let her go, pulling back, keeping his hands on her arms.

"Hey," he whispered back.

Bella cleared her throat and wiped her face, mustering up a sheepish smile. "I was just about to come find you. I was wondering if you wanted to go out for dinner. Or I could cook! Whichever one yo -"

"Let's go out!" Charlie said. "And we don't have to go to The Lodge. We can go anywhere. Wherever you want to go."

"We could go to that new diner in Port Angeles?" Bella suggested. "I'm kind of in the mood to eat my weight in pancakes."

* * *

Charlie stared at his daughter as she browsed the menu.

After their little cry session, Charlie had gotten dressed and they headed out. He'd made Bella grab a jacket since her raincoat was currently soiled, sitting in her laundry hamper. They'd taken his cruiser to the diner, and he hadn't protested when Bella turned on the radio, flicking through the stations. It was the most he'd seen her move in four days, and he didn't want her to shut down again. She'd finally settled on listening to some old nineties music, bobbing her head to the beat.

It was like she had become an entirely different person in the hour and a half that she'd been out of bed.

Four days ago, when he'd come home and he hadn't been there, he wasn't really phased at first. It was normal for Bella to spend time with the Cullens, specifically Edward and Alice, before coming home. But then he saw her note on the kitchen table about how she'd gone out for a walk, and that was when the panic set in. Bella liked nature good enough, but she was clumsy and not very athletic, so she kept her outdoor activities to a minimum. For her to suddenly take an interest in the environmental scenery? Incredibly shady. His feeling of dread had gotten even worse when she didn't answer any of his calls, and it had gotten dark outside.

Desperate to know that she was safe and not dead in a ditch somewhere, Charlie had called everyone he could: other police officers, Billy, Harry, the neighbors, and the Cullens.

Imagine his surprise when Dr. Cullen and Alice's phone numbers were found to be disconnected.

After the most emotionally and mentally draining few hours of his life, Sam Uley, bless his soul, had returned from the woods with Bella in his arms, saying that he'd found her laying on the ground. Dr. Gerandy had looked her over, said she was fine, but Charlie knew that the wounds weren't physical. As angry as he was at the Cullens for leaving so suddenly, he couldn't focus on them right away, he just wanted to make sure Bella stopped shivering and ate something.

The next four days after that had been stressful. Bella refused to get out of bed, just laid there, curled up in the fetal position. She wouldn't talk, just stared at him blankly when he spoke to her. After the first two days, Charlie called Sue over to help him get Bella in the shower, and for a second it seemed like she would go, but when Charlie had muttered to Sue about sending Bella back to Renee, she threw a fit, screaming and swinging on them. Charlie and Sue resolved to let her sit for a bit more.

Every night, Charlie was jerked awake by the sound of Bella's agonized screams, the nightmares visiting her every night. And every night without fail he'd go in and sit with her until she fell back asleep. She drank the water he gave her and ate a few bites of the sandwiches, but after that she'd flop back down on her soiled sheets.

So it had been quite surprising when, as he was washing his breakfast dishes this morning, he heard the shower turn on.

Charlie may not be the best at expressing emotion, and there was some distance between him and his daughter, but he was a teenager himself once, and he knew that Bella would never open up if he darted up the stairs that very second to harass her. So he'd paced the hallway by the door and attempted to watch TV, before he finally cracked and went to go see if she was up and about.

Seeing her standing there, dressed, clean, and looking less dead than before had made emotion swell in his chest. He didn't even have to think twice about going out for dinner, Bella didn't need to be cooped up indoors anymore than she already has.

When they'd gotten to the diner, Bella had quietly asked for a table outside, and at Charlie's questioning glance, she'd flushed and explained that she needed some fresh air.

Just as Charlie opened his mouth to speak to Bella, the waiter arrived.

"Good evening, my name is Marian and I'll be your server for today!" the woman smiled at them. "Can I start you two off with something to drink?"

"Orange juice, please," Bella said.

"Same for me."

"Alrighty!" Marian scribbles their drink orders down on her notepad. "And were you guys ready to order, or did you need some more time to look over the menu?"

"Can we get some more time, please?" Charlie asked, realizing that, in analyzing Bella's actions this morning, he hadn't even glanced at the menu.

"Of course! I'll have your drinks out in a minute."

Marian leaves, and Bella and Charlie are left alone.

The diner, Corner House Restaurant, was pretty busy, not overflowing with customers, but definitely bringing in a good amount of business. They weren't the only ones outside; a few other people were sitting out on the patio that connected to the diner. It was a pleasant enough day outside. The sun was out, but it wasn't too hot, the rain from last night making the day cool, but not too chilly.

As they wait for their drinks, both father and daughter wonder what to say.

"I'm sorry," Bella blurted.

"What?" Charlie jumped, not expecting the abrupt apology.

"You tried to warn me that Edward was bad news, and I didn't listen. I thought that just because I've been taking care of myself and my mother since I was a kid that I was mature enough to handle a relationship, but I was wrong. If anything, that type of upbringing made me even more vulnerable because I didn't really know what to expect. I should have listened to you, and then I went and made you panic by going into the woods."

"I'm not mad at you Bella," Charlie assured her, reaching across the table to grab her hand. Both of them were bad with emotions, but now they had to try. Bella's downward spiral and Charlie's fretting weren't going to come to an end until they talked it out. "I'm mad at the Cullens for hurting you. When I got home that day, I knew you weren't really on a walk, at least not by your own choice. You're not an athlete, Bells," they both gave a watery chuckle, "and I knew that there was no way you were out for a hike."

"That day that I went in the woods, Edward said he wanted to speak with me. We went for a walk on the trail, the one right behind our house. A few minutes in we stopped, and that's when Edward told me that he and his family were leaving. I didn't understand what he meant at first, but then he said that he and his family were moving and that he wanted to break up with me. He, um, told me that he didn't want me, and that he didn't really care for me in the first place, and that my mind was weak, so I'd forget him quickly, as if he were never here."

Charlie's hand tightened around hers, his face turning bright red in anger.

Bella continued, "I asked about Alice and the others, because I hadn't seen them since my birthday party. I wanted to know why they didn't say goodbye, and he said that they all thought a clean break would be best. He left me in the woods then, and I tried to follow him but, you know, he's fast and I'm clumsy. I got lost in the woods, and then I tripped, and I didn't get back up. That's how Sam found me."

"That piece of shit," Charlie growled. "That _rat bastard!_"

Charlie's filled with the intense urge to hunt down Edward Cullen and strangle the life out of him, just wrap his hands around the arrogant little prick's throat and squeeze.

"Dad, I'm okay," Bella insists. "I mean, not okay, but I'll get there. I just...laying in bed, I had to confront a lot of things that I had been ignoring for months, like the fact that Edward and I's relationship wasn't healthy."

Marian returns with their drinks, and asks if they're ready to order.

Bella asks for a stack of buttermilk pancakes with a side of scrambled eggs and sausage. Charlie, originally going to order their meat lover's option, decided that he didn't need all that pork, and instead ordered the chicken and waffles. Marian smiles at them and disappears to go put their order in.

"You don't have to tell me everything right now if you don't want to," Charlie said, breaking the silence. "But I am here for you when you're ready."

Bella smiles, and Charlie's heart breaks because he can't remember the last time her smile was that genuine; certainly not when she was with Edward.

"Thanks, Dad. I, uh, was also wondering if you knew about any programs that help... battered women that have gotten out of bad relationships."

"Did he hit you?!" Charlie demands, hand instinctively going to his waist, only to realize that he'd left his gun at home on the rack.

"No!" Bella assures him. "No, Edward didn't hit me. I swear, Dad, he never hit me." Charlie slowly relaxes in his chair, and she continues. "I suppose battered wasn't the best word to use. Edward was controlling, Dad. He chose when I got to eat, when I slept, who I talked to. That's why I never really hung out with Jacob as much as I wanted to last year, because Edward didn't like it. I was living my life by his rules for so long, and it feels like I've forgotten who I really am, and I think one of those programs can help me, you know? Help me figure out how to heal, how to move on and forget about him. I just... I'm scared that if I don't get better, if I don't learn how to let him go, then if I ever see him again, or run into another guy like that, I'll be right back where I started."

Charlie was silent for a moment, taking it all in. His eyes watered with tears he refused to shed; this wasn't about him right now. He hated himself for not noticing. Sure, he'd had a bad feeling about Edward since the beginning, but he had felt weird attempting to go to Bella about it, because he'd been so out of place in her life. He only saw Bella once a year, if that, and as she got older the visits dwindled impossibly more. Now, Bella was a teenager, and he had missed out on so much that he didn't know if she'd be receptive to his advice on her love life.

He knew that he didn't have the best track record himself, seeing as how he'd only been married once and his wife and left in a flurry of harsh words and hadn't looked back, and he hadn't exactly been active on the dating scene since then. But he still cared for Bella, and he should have been more open and observant so she could have avoided Edward altogether.

"I can hear you, Dad, and it's not your fault. Edward had everyone fooled. It was so easy to get caught up with him. When I started school, Jessica talked about him like he was this forbidden treasure, and I felt special when he focused his attention on me, especially since he ignored every other girl. I thought that maybe I wasn't as plain as I thought, and so I let him, and Alice, dictate my life because I wanted to fit into their world. I wanted his family to like me, I wanted to be one of them. I've never had a guy chase after me like Edward did, so I was flattered. I never expected everything to get so crazy."

"It's not your fault," Charlie says gently. "Both of us got blindsided by the Cullens. Ever since Carlisle moved here I had a blind sense of hero worship towards him. He was a great doctor that was willing to take a pay cut to work here, and Alice was always so charming... even though I didn't like Edward, I convinced myself that there wasn't anything wrong. We both got caught up in the moment." The two shared a watery smile, and for the first time in a long time, it felt like everything was going to be alright. "I'll call the station tomorrow morning, let them know I'll be coming back to work soon, and I'll get the information for the battered women programs."

Once their food arrived, Bella and Charlie spent the rest of the evening talking, making up for lost time.

* * *

That night, after taking another shower, Bella collapsed into bed, physically and emotionally drained. After spending so many years bottling up her true emotions while living with Renee, having to open up to Charlie had taken a lot out of her. She didn't regret it, not at all, but she felt drained.

Bella scooted under the covers, tugging the blanket up to her chin.

It had been nice to sit with her father and talk. She wondered why they didn't do it more often. They had a similar sense of humor, and Bella was sure that, if they spent more time together, she'd find other things they had in common. She'd bring that up with him soon, maybe find something that they could do together.

Despite all the talking she did today, she knew that opening up about her relationship with Edward was just the beginning. She needed to go to those programs, needed to do a lot of things, like apologize to Billy for not taking him seriously when he tried to warn her about the Cullens; apologize to Jessica and Angela for being such a crappy friend; apologize to Jake for not spending time with him and letting Edward dictate who she could hang out with; and hunt down Sam to thank him for coming to search the woods for her.

She still felt guilt for sending the entire town into a panic. As the chief's daughter, she knew that her disappearance had been made a top priority, especially since damn near everyone around knew how clumsy she was; for all they knew, she could've fallen down a hill and shattered every bone in her body. And the people loved her father, so of course they wanted to help.

Bella wondered how her life could be so chaotic. Sometimes it still felt like some fever dream. When living in Arizona, this teen drama and angst was never an issue for her. She had a small group of people she was friendly with, but she kept to herself and took care of the house and did homework. Never dating anyone and not going out prevented her from getting caught up in the dramatics of her fellow peers. While the girls in her grade freaked out about prom, losing their virginities, and the occasional pregnancy, Bella freaked out about her mom quitting yet another job on a whim.

She supposed it was good that she never had to worry about getting pregnant and having to explain it to her mother, but at the same time, Bella felt like she missed out. Having to care for her mother all the time, Bella realized that she never really got the chance to be a kid. The only time she ever got to take a break from being a caretaker was when she was visiting her father. Bella always looked back on those times fondly, as those weeks during the summer had been filled with trips to the beach, cookouts, and playing with her friends on the reservation. She faintly remembers making mud pies with Jacob, much to the dismay of his older sisters. Bella realized that she had always loved Forks, deep down, but hadn't been able to stay too long since her mother needed her. Now that Phil was in the picture, Bella was free to fade away from her mother's side.

Sighing, Bella rolled over onto her side, gazing out the window.

After being stationary for four days, she wasn't very tired. Every time she closed her eyes to try to sleep, they flew back open. Her mind kept spinning, and Bella didn't want to think anymore, she just wanted _sleep_.

Giving up, Bella pushed the covers back and got up, slinking down the hallway and down the stairs. Halfway down, she could see the light from the TV in the living room, and when she peeked her head around the corner, she saw her Dad in his pajamas, watching reruns of _Malcom In The Middle_.

When Bella's foot made contact with the last step, it moaned loudly under her weight, and Charlie's head swiveled towards her. Bella blushed and shuffled to the living room, twisting her fingers together nervously.

"Can...can I watch with you?" Bella asked.

Charlie smiled and waved her over, scooting over on the couch to make room for her. Bella sat next to him, drawing her knees up to her chest.

Sitting there with her father, just enjoying each other's company, Bella felt the urge to just spill every thought she's ever had. Despite living with Renee for most of her life, she felt closer to her father. She and her dad were so much alike, and she felt like he would understand anything she'd tell him, opposed to her mother, who, while she did try her best, wasn't always checked in mentally and emotionally to Bella's needs. In fact, that was why she was so adamant about not going back to her mother's like her father had suggested.

"I asked to live with you when I was eight," Bella says, and Charlie tenses next to her.

"What?"

"When I was eight," Bella murmurs. "I told mom that I didn't want to live in Arizona with her, I wanted to come to Forks with you. I missed you. She said she'd call you, and then a few days later she said that you didn't want me here so I didn't ask again. I thought that maybe you just didn't want a kid full time, and I understood, so I settled for the summer visits."

"_Bells_," Charlie says, voice cracking. Bella drags her teary eyes up to meet his, fingers playing with loose thread in the couch cushions. "Bells, that's not true!"

"I know that now," Bella replies, throat thick with emotion. "I just...for years I thought you didn't want me here long term and I didn't want to scare you away by being pushy, I just- -"

Charlie's eyes start to water at the sight of Bella falling apart in front of him.

"I always wanted you to live with me," Charlie swears. "The courts thought it would be better if you stayed with your mother for the majority of the year. Bella, I promise you, Renee never called me about you wanting to come live with me. That conversation never happened, not once. If I had known you wanted to come with me, if I had known you hadn't liked Arizona, I would've come for you immediately. I'm so sorry."

"I just," Bella cried, breath hitching, tears streaming down her face. "I've always had to take care of her! I've always had to make sure the bills got paid on time and make sure the house was clean, and I don't have to do any of that here and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with all this free time. I don't -"

Bella started to sob, and Charlie enveloped her in his arms. She clutched at his T-shirt like a small child, gasping for air. She didn't know how to tell him that her outburst was about more than her mother at the moment. She'd felt off balance ever since she got to Forks. It had nothing to do with her father or having moved to an entirely new state. Her dazed state was a result of not knowing how to fit into her own life anymore. Growing up, she was the adult, the caretaker, the responsible one. She did the cooking and the cleaning and the bill paying, and not, in Forks, she didn't have to do any of that. Charlie paid the bills and they took turns washing the dishes and he was capable of feeding himself without her.

She wasn't needed by him the same way she was needed by her mother, and it was unsettling. It wasn't a bad thing that Charlie was capable of taking care of himself, not at all. In fact, it was a very nice change. But it was a sudden change; after more than a decade of having to be an adult, Bella wasn't sure she knew how to be a child. She was always so tense, always so worked up, and didn't know how to let people take care of ehr. And so she threw herself into her relationship with Edward, unaware that she was subconsciously letting him treat her like she couldn't take care of herself and needed him to baby her every step of the way. Bella wondered if she tolerated that from him because she didn't have any other knowledge on how relationships worked.

Bella inhaled sharply and wiped her eyes, and Charlie let her go.

"Sorry," Bella whispered.

"It's okay," Charlie whispered back. "God, Bella, I swear I never knew."

"You didn't know because I didn't want you to. I was convinced that I had to keep everything bottled up and be the adult, I never knew that it could be any other way."

"You know things are gonna be different now, though, right?"

Bella leaned her head against his shoulder. "Yeah, I know."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

* * *

Bella goes back to school on a Monday.

The sky is a pale orange, the sun not quite out but not hidden by rain clouds either. Instead of the usually frigid air that happens around this time of year, there's nothing but a cool breeze. Bella smiles. The weather, calming and smooth, makes her feel like today is the day for new beginnings.

Halloween will be coming up soon, and Bella actually looks forward to it. Not because she wants to dress up or anything, but because she loves the way the crispness of the October turned to November air makes her feel, like every lungful she takes in is healing her. Also, the part of her that occasionally indulged in childlike whimsies loved stepping on freshly fallen pinecones and leaves. She remembers how last year, despite seeing other classmates play in the leaves outside, Edward had gripped her arm tightly and held her back, believing it was too juvenile.

After damn near a year of not talking to any of her other friends in high school, Bella was determined to at least apologize to them today. Them being Jessica and Angela. Bella didn't want anything to do with Lauren or her bitchy attitude, and the less she saw of Mike the better. Jessica and Angela had been nice to her from the start, though, with no ulterior motives, and they had made an effort to include her in the conversations at the lunch table.

She'd never had many friends growing up, her only interactions with people her age being her summer visits to Forks when her father would take her to go see Jake and the other kids on the reservation. When she was with her mother, though, she didn't have the time nor the patience for children, despite being one herself. She was just always so busy making sure the mortgage was paid and the lights were on, and she didn't have time to play in the mud outside with her neighbors.

Having friends now, though, was a surreal experience, and she couldn't believe she blew it.

When she started dating Edward, she stopped seeing them. Of course, she saw them in passing in the hallway or maybe the parking lot, but when Edward was around, it was like she had tunnel vision. Her eyes only locked on Edward and she followed him around like a lost puppy, sitting with him and his family during lunch.

Bella drummed her fingers against the steering wheel as she looks around the parking lot. She had arrived fifteen minutes ago and was just watching everyone else file in. She saw a few students do a double take at the sight of her signature beaten up truck and point, whispering amongst themselves.

She almost laughed out loud at how they must think of her; _local girl who spiraled when her boyfriend leaves her suddenly shows her face in public again._

While not quite ready to confront all of the baggage she had piled up inside of her, she knew that she had to be ready for the occasional jab or two at her about Edward leaving. At the end of the day, she could go home and wallow in her room if it really got to her, but she refused to lay in bed again all day. Being stationary in her own filth had done nothing for her wellbeing.

Bella glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

School started in twenty minutes.

Usually, Bella would have arrived early to secure a good parking space near the back so that way, when school was letting out, she didn't have to fight too much to get out of the parking lot. Today, though, she'd chosen a spot right in the middle so that, when Jessica and Angela arrived, she'd be able to see them and hopefully cross paths with them before they were swept away to their different classes. Bella supposed that she could always see Jess in homeroom, but she wanted Angela to be there at the same time so she wouldn't have to repeat herself. And confronting them in the cafeteria was a big no no, because the last thing Bella needed was for Lauren to cause a scene just as she was about to redeem herself.

Jessica's Prius rolls up and parks nearby, and from the corner of her eye, Bella can see Angela get off the bus near the end of the parking lot.

Go time.

Bella took a deep breath and got out of her car, shrugging her backpack on and closing the door.

By the time Jessica is out of the car and has gotten herself situated with her books and backpack, Bella's already standing directly in front of her.

The surprise on Jessica's face turns quickly into annoyance, and Bella falters for just a second before she forces herself to get the words out.

"Hey," Bella greeted, playing with the strap of her backpack.

Jessica arches an eyebrow and gives a curt, "Hey," in response, clearly expecting the three letter word to be the end of their social interaction for the century.

Angela's just now getting halfway up the hill, and her head turns in Bella's direction. Bella motions for her to come over, but doesn't leave Jessica's side, afraid that Jess would haul ass into the school the second Bella wasn't standing in the way.

Angela hesitantly comes over, clearly as baffled as Jessica is at Bella's presence, although she was much too nice to say anything about it. Bella greets her and Angela just nods back.

"I know you guys probably hate me," Bella says. "And that's justified. Last year, I was new to the school and I didn't know anyone, and you guys were really nice to me and made sure to include me at the lunch table and invited me to go places with you guys outside of school. And I never really appreciated that." Jessica's hardened face softens just a bit. "Me being shy and introverted is no excuse, I should have put more effort into our friendship. You guys were giving a hundred and fifteen percent, and, on a good day, I was maybe giving twelve. And then I started dating Edward, and then I cut you guys out completely, and I swear, I never meant to do any of that."

Bella's throat has become thick with emotion, and she blinks rapidly to keep the tears at bay. Angela gives a watery smile, encouragement for her to continue, and Jessica doesn't look so hostile anymore, instead clamping her lips together to hide the way her bottom lip trembles.

"I got so caught up, you know? Hottest guy in school wanted someone plain and boring like me, and I just cut you guys out because I wanted him to like me. I completely changed who I was to impress some stupid teenage boy, and that _so_ violates the girl code." Jessica's giggles are followed by tears that she hastily wipes away. "I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm sorry. And, if you're open to it, I'd like to start over. Be a real friend to you guys this time, if you'll have me."

Jessica's arms lock around Bella and Angela's neck, yanking them together in one teary group hug. The three of them sob and smile as they clutch at each other, Jessica's mascara completely ruined, black streaks running down her cheeks. Angela's glasses have been knocked askew from the force of her collision with Bella and Jessica.

"New code, from here on out," Jessica declares, holding her head up high as they pull back from each other.

Her hair, which had been straightened, is now frizzy, the strands looking like they wanted to escape from her scalp; her hair against Angela and Bella's hair had created a lot of friction. The makeup that was once so carefully done was now smeared across her cheeks and around her eyes, making her look like a raccoon.

Bella thought she looked absolutely gorgeous.

"Doesn't matter who the guy is, we do _not_ let him tears us apart. He could be Edward Cullen two point oh, and he'd still be dead to us. Understand? This is a pact, bitches. The three of us are going to be friends for the rest of our lives, this is non-negotiable."

Jessica put her hand out, and Bella smacked her hand on top of hers. Angela puts her hand on the pile as well.

"I've never liked boys much anyways."

* * *

Friendship restored, Bella is sure that nothing can ruin her day.

She and Jessica had gone to their homeroom, waving goodbye to Angela as she went to hers. Bella encouraged Jessica to tell her about her life, catch her up on what she's missed. So far, she's learned that Jessica's father got a promotion, and that her mother has picked up yet another hobby.

"My parents try to put on this happy front when I'm around, but I know they're not happy together," Jessica says as they sit in the back of the classroom. The teacher has yet to call roll. "My dad's promotion is good news, but my mom keeps spending money on these hobbies that she never sees through and it's driving my dad insane. You're so lucky."

"How?" Bella asked, baffled at the turn in conversation.

"Your parents divorced years ago, and they're better off. Now you have your dad, and he seems chill. Much less of a hard ass than my own father, which is weird because I figured having the police chief as your father would be the makings of a teenage tragedy."

Bella laughs. "You know me, Jess. I don't go to parties, I don't drink, I don't do drugs. I go to school and I go home. My dad never had to be a hard ass because I don't _do_ anything."

"We've got to change that."

"You want me to do drugs?!"

"No!" Jessica rolled her eyes so hard Bella thought they would fall out of her head. "I mean, you have to live a little, start going to parties. I'm not saying you have to go buck wild and dance naked on a table, but you can't stay in the house all day. Ages sixteen to twenty nine are our prime years, baby, and we've go to live it up."

"I'll think about it," Bella said, and she actually meant it.

She wasn't much of a party person, but Jessica was right, she had to get out of the house more. While Bella very much enjoyed reading for fun of rewatching her favorite movies, she didn't want to do that everyday for the rest of her life. And that comment about this being her prime really stuck with her. She knew that people could be old but still be lively, but Bella didn't want to wait decades before she lived her best life, she wanted to live a good life now. When she was eighty, she wanted to be able to look back at her seventeen year old self and be happy that she got those life experiences.

Bella and Jessica part ways at the end of homeroom, and the next three hours that pass are filled with her teachers welcoming her back with pitying glances, and her classmates laughing at her behind her back.

Bella...wasn't as bothered as she thought she'd be. Sure, it hurt that so many of her classmates could so easily laugh at the fact that Edward ditched her and she'd fallen into a pit of despair, but she wasn't super focused on it. She had more important things to worry about, like improving her relationship with her father, confronting her mother over her disgusting lies, apologizing to the Blacks, and hunting down Sam. Not to mention waiting for her father to get back to her with the women's programs in Forks. Bella was a little worried at first about attending meetings in such a small town where she would easily be recognized, until she realized that it wasn't anyone else's business what she'd grown through with Edward. And even if the townsfolk did begin to speculate that the Cullens weren't as squeaky clean as previously believed, what did _she_ care?

They abandoned her. They treated her like she was an object. They didn't even have the decency to give her a proper goodbye. So if her neighbors began to think of the Cullens in a bad way, served them right.

Bella meets back up with Jessica and Angela in the cafeteria, and the three of them head to the lunch line. Bella grabs a slice of pizza, the grease staining her fingers as it spilled off the plate, and a can of Sprite. Jessica looked like she wanted to grab a salad, but instead went for the pizza as well. Angela had packed a lunch that day.

Once Bella and Jessica paid, they hunted for a table, not really wanting to sit with Lauren in the others that day.

"Let's sit at the Cullens table," Angela suggested, looking at Bella. "First step to getting over your crappy ex-boyfriend? Take over his territory."

And so the three monopolized the table that used to house the Cullens, eyes on them from every angle.

"I feel so powerful," Jessica laughed. cracking open her bottle of apple juice.

"I'm surprised you're not getting a salad," Bella said, wiping her hands on a napkin. "I remember you used to be obsessed with eating green."

"Mike's made it clear that he's not interested, and I refuse to adjust my eating habits to impress some boy. New pact, remember? To hell with men, I say!" She pumped her fist in the air.

"Speaking of men," Bella arched an eyebrow at Angela. "What happened between you and yours?"

Angela flushed, picking at the crust of her chicken salad sandwich.

"Ben and I didn't work out," she mumbled. "I guess my height is more intimidating than I thought."

"Okay, no," Bella snaps. "If he's insecure about your height then that's his personal problem he needs to work out on his own time. You're gorgeous, and if he can't handle that, forget him."

"All in favor of tossing Ben to the curb say 'I'", Jess says, and Angela laughs as Bella and Jess prod her into loudly proclaiming "I!" with them.

"We should have some girl time," Angela says. "It's been a while."

"What about a sleepover?" Bella hesitantly suggest. "I've never been to one and I don't really know how they work, but it could be fun."

"Woah, what do you mean you've never been to a sleepover?" Jessica demanded. "That's, like, a right of passage for a teenage girl."

Bella shrugged. "I never had the chance. My mom would probably fall apart without me if I stayed somewhere else for the weekend, and I just got to Forks last year, so I haven't exactly had many prospects lined up."

"Unacceptable," Jessica told her, and Angela nodded solemnly in agreement. "Next week, we get that Friday off because of teacher conferences. I say that Thursday night, we all go to my house and get you properly inducted into teenage girlhood. We'll get pizza, popcorn, scary movies, and I'll teach you how to put on mascara even if it kills me."

Angela grins, her foot knocking into Bella's. "Come on, Bells. It'll be fun!"

"Yeah," Bella said slowly, a grin spreading across her face. "What the hell, I'm in!"

Jessica and Angela cheer and hunch forward, drawing Bella into their plans.

* * *

Charlie clears the dinner table, rinsing off the plates and putting them in the dishwasher. It didn't get much use, as he and Bella preferred to hand wash dishes usually, but tonight he figure they could both use a break.

Bella had made grilled chicken for dinner, with a healthy side of broccoli and brown rice. When Charlie had poked at the greens, Bella had arched an unimpressed eyebrow at him. Much to his embarrassment, Bella had sat at the table with him until he'd cleared his plate of vegetables.

"You didn't have to give me that much broccoli," Charlie grumbled to Bella, who had just finished sweeping the floor.

Bella grinned, putting the broom and dustpan back in the corner. "It's good for you, Dad. You can't eat fried fish all the time, it's bad for your heart."

Charlie huffed, but knew she was right. He really needed to cut back on the greasy foods.

"Besides," Bella continued. "You won't be on this health kick alone. From now on, you and I are going to eat our weight in fruits and vegetables. Foods with low starch, low sugars, and drinking lots of water. Maybe we can even, I don't know, go for a walk a few times a week."

Bella said the last part quietly, as if afraid of rejection. Charlie shut the dishwasher and started it up before turning to face her.

"As long as we're in this together," Charlie said, and Bella smiled.

"I want to run something else by you too," Bella twisted her fingers together nervously.

"You aren't in any trouble at school, are you?" Charlie frowned, leaning back against the counter.

"No!" Bella assured him. "It's just...Jessica is having a sleepover next Thursday, she invited Angela and I, and I wanted to know if it was okay for me to go?"

If Charlie hadn't been aware of how damaging life with Renee was for Bella, he probably would've guffawed at the fact that Bella thought she had to be afraid to ask to go to a friend's house. After the small talk he'd had with his daughter, he understood that she didn't get the chance to be a child when she was with Renee, and that as a result, her social skills weren't really up to par, and she didn't know what was expected of her. Charlie thought it would be good for Bella to go to sleepovers and hang out with people her own age. Of course, Charlie loved spending time with her, but it wasn't good for a teenager to spend all their time surrounded by people twice their age.

"Of course," Charlie smiled, not missing the way Bella's shoulders slumped in relief.

Bella grinned back, a little more sure of herself.

"Okay, cool. Thank you," she mumbled bashfully. "You're gonna be okay with me gone for an entire weekend? School's cancelled that Friday, so I'd be gone from Thursday to Sunday?"

Charlie ruffled his daughter's hair, and she squawked in protest. "Relax, Bells. I'll be fine. You go on up to bed, I'll finish up in here."

Bella hugged and kissed her father goodnight before going upstairs, a huge smile on her face. She was going to her first sleepover next week! The movies she'd seen made them all seem like so much fun; horror movies, a pile of candy and chips, and an endless torrent of gossip. Bella was new to it all, but she was ready to embrace it.

She fell asleep that night buried under the covers, content with the way her life was going.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

* * *

They take the cruiser to La Push on Saturday.

Charlie drives more carefully than usual, taking his sweet time getting to Billy's house. Bella glances at him from the passenger seat, the afternoon glow of the sun bringing out the slightest bit of auburn in her hair. Normally, she'd worry about him in silence, but they're trying this new communication thing, and she wants to do better. She wants their relationship to be better.

"I bet he's not even mad anymore, Dad," Bella assures him.

Billy and her dad had been friends for what seemed like forever; they'd been best friends since before she was even born! They seemed inseparable, and perhaps they had been until the Cullens had rolled into town. Her dad had supported Carlisle's presence at the hospital, and not without justifiable reason; Carlisle was doing amazing medical work, and, Charlie had noted, was doing said work for half of what he'd get if he'd gone to a bigger city to work. Billy hadn't felt the same. According to her father, Billy and many other residents of La Push stopped going to the hospital the second Carlisle showed up. Billy had been vague about the entire thing, but he'd made it very clear that he'd rather die than go anywhere near the Cullens. Despite Billy never giving a reason for hating the Cullens, Charlie was adamant that he should've taken his friend's concerns seriously instead of brushing them off.

Billy had reported feeling uneasy around the Cullens and not wanting Charlie to let Bella associate with Edward, and Charlie had taken offense to that at first. Now, though, he'd seen first hand how the Cullens operate, such as leaving his daughter in the woods in the middle of the night where anything could have happened to her. However, even with that realization, Charlie didn't know how to apologize to Billy for not believing him.

"Billy can hold a grudge," Charlie grumbled, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. Bella absently registered that she did the same thing when she was nervous. "Both of us said some things...I don't know. I don't know if he'll even want to see me."

"The least you can do is try," Bella said. "Besides, it's not just you he's going to have words for. He told me to stay away from the Cullens, too, remember? We both blew him off. As far as I'm concerned, we're both on his shit list. Which is exactly why I spent the morning slaving away in the kitchen."

Bella glances behind her to look in the backseat, making sure the pans of food hadn't toppled over. She'd spent the morning making lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and chocolate chip cookies. She figured that Billy would feel more inclined to hear her and her father out if they had gifts to accompany their apologies. And Jacob was a bottomless pit; the second the dessert came out, Bella would probably have her best friend back.

"I feel like it's worse in my case, though," Charlie groused, steering neatly around a pothole.

Bella hadn't been in La Push since the beach trip she took when she first arrived in Forks, and before that, it had been years since her last visit to this side of town. There were many people she didn't recognize, but a few people around her age that she vaguely remembered. Maybe she'd played with them when they were kids.

"I've known Billy for decades," Charlie continues quietly. "He wouldn't have had a reason to lie. You've only known the Cullens for a year, and you had just moved to Forks. You needed something new and shiny to keep you from dying of boredom."

They shared a smile.

"You said it yourself, Dad. You've been friends for decades. Neither of you should let this little spat be the end of that friendship. Today's the day to get everything out in the open. You both have to open up."

"I hate it when you're right."

Charlie parks the car outside Billy's house. It's the very last house on the street, far away from the others and right on the edge of the expansive woods. Bella smiles as she gets out of the car, recalling how much trouble she and Jacob would get into for making mud pies and tracking their mess into the house. And there, at the picnic table on the end of the woods, Bella spent time with Rachel and Rebecca, letting them play with her hair and nails. Looking back on it, Rachel and Rebecca never suffocated her with fashion like Alice did.

Shaking her head, Bella grabbed the food from the back seat, Charlie helping her.

Walking up to the front door, Bella takes a deep breath before knocking. Her hearts pounds furiously in her chest.

The door creaks open, and Billy stares up at them, utterly unimpressed.

Bella figures she and her father look downright pitiful; both of them clutching trays of food, faces forlorn, yet hopeful. Just when Bella thinks Billy's going to slam the door in their faces, he wheels himself backwards to allow them inside. Charlie exhales heavily behind her.

"You two got some nerve," Billy grumbles, wheeling himself over to the kitchen table. Angry, but not too angry to turn down a free meal. Bella gently sets the food down on the table, Charlie following her lead. She glances at her father, and he steps forward.

Bella smiles as Billy's hardened face softens just a little bit, and she excuses herself, giving them some privacy.

She'd been sitting on the porch for maybe ten minutes when Jacob shows up, two other boys flanking him. One of the boys points at her, shaking Jake's shoulder roughly, and Jacob's head swivels in her direction. Bella raises a hand sheepishly.

Jacob says something to his friends and they leer and jostle him a bit before walking off.

Bella stands, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her jacket so he couldn't see her fidget. Jacob's long legs have him standing in front of her in seconds, and she gapes up at him. She was pretty sure he wasn't this tall the last time she saw him, which was at the dance last year.

His vertical growth spurt wasn't the only thing different about him. Jake's face was starting to rapidly lose its baby fat, showing a rather chiseled jaw underneath. His hair seemed thicker and longer, too, reaching way past his shoulders. His arms, _good lord,_ his arms; Jacob looked like he bench pressed motorcycles in his free time.

Jake cleared his throat, and Bella flushed, jerking her eyes back up to focus on his face. He smirked.

"First time seeing me in months, and you only want me for my body."

"In your dreams," Bella grinned. "I'm just baffled that you grew so much. I distinctly remember a time where I was taller than you."

"That was never a thing, shrimpy. You've always been vertically challenged, and it's okay, it isn't your fault. Some of us just have superior genes."

It felt just like old times. Bella missed him, and hadn't even realized how much she missed him until just then.

"I'm sorry," Bella said, and the smile drops from Jacob's face. "I haven't been a very good friend to you lately, have I? I've been so caught up in myself and my stupid problems, and you've been there for me, and I don't think I've ever even asked you how your day was. How was your day, Jacob?"

Jacob shrugs, the smile returning to his lips. "I hung out with Quil and Embry today. Embry and I kicked Quil's ass on his playstation. Embry's mom made cake, too, and I shamelessly consumed two huge slices." He pauses, and says slowly, "What about you? How have you been since..."

"Since Edward Cullen left me in the woods?" Bella supplied cheerfully.

Jacob flushed.

"I've actually been pretty good," Bella admitted. "I mean, I'm not okay, but it's okay to not be okay, you know?"

Jacob opens his mouth to respond, but the front door of his house creaks open, and Bella and Jacob both turn to see a red eyed Charlie standing in the doorway. At first, Bella fears that her father had just lost his best friend. But the smile he gives them assures her that Charlie and Billy are back to being thick as thieves.

Charlie tells them to come inside so they can get ready for dinner. Jacob goes in first, nearly bowling Charlie over at the mention of food. Bella lingers in the doorway with her father, raising her eyebrows at him. He nods, and Bella feels like a weight is lifted off her shoulders. Her dad throws an arm around her shoulders and leads her to the kitchen.

The food had gotten a bit cold, so Bella slips it into the oven to warm up while Jacob and Charlie set the table. It's refreshing to see her dad and Billy bickering just like they used to. Bella looks at her father's face, which is practically glowing with his joy. Billy's face mirrors her fathers, and Bella hates herself just a bit for dating Edward Cullen, for making her dad feel like he had to pick sides. The self hatred lasts for all of fifteen minutes before Bella stomps the thought away.

It isn't her fault that Edward turned out to be a shitbag, and it also isn't her fault that the Cullens happen to be vampires. She couldn't keep shouldering the blame for things that had nothing to do with her, it was unhealthy and she refused to go back to the smelly zombie she had been just a few days ago.

Once the food was reheated, Bella, Charlie, Billy, and Jacob squeezed around the table to eat together.

Bella smiles as Jacob piled more salad on his father's plate, taking away the extra piece of garlic bread the older man had grabbed for himself. Billy opened his mouth to protest, and was swiftly silence by Jacob's arched eyebrow. Pouting just a bit, Billy poured the ranch dressing over the lettuce and dug in, grumbling half heartedly under his breath.

Charlie looked at Bella from across the table and smiled.

Things were looking up.

* * *

After dinner, Bella and Jake left their fathers to watch the game on TV while they went for a walk. Bella knew she needed to speak to Billy alone and planned to do so after the game, wanting to let her father have some time with his oldest friend. Jacob led her down to the beach, their shoes sinking into the sand with every step. Bella made a mental note to shake her shoes out before the weekend was over.

"So, any La Push drama I need be caught up on before I inevitably make a fool of myself?"

Jacob laughed, swinging an arm around her shoulders and knocking them together. If not for him holding her up, she would've collapsed face first into the sand. He led her to a fallen tree a few yard up from the shoreline, and they perched themselves upon it, Bella swinging herself up so that she could rest her entire body on the trunk.

"Well," Jacob deliberated. "The biggest scandal on the block right now is the one between Sam, Leah, and Emily. Damn near everyone in La Push is taking sides, and it's making an even bigger mess."

"Leah?" Bella frowned, the name familiar. "Leah Clearwater?"

Bella hadn't seen Leah since they were children. Their last interaction had been before Jacob's mom had passed. Around that time, too, Bella had started coming to Forks less and less per her mother's persuasion.

"Yeah," Jacob sighed, one leg bent other him, the other swinging above the sand, the tip of his toes occasionally bringing up a small cloud of sand. "Leah and Sam were engaged. They were supposed to get married once Leah got done with high school, and Leah was planning on staying in-state for college so they'd be close. Everything was going great...until Sam disappeared for a couple of months."

"_Months?_ Where the hell was he?!"

Jacob shrugged. "He's been pretty tight lipped around it. Apparently only Old Quil, my dad, and Harry and Sue Clearwater know, but they won't talk. Anyways, Sam disappeared for months, and not once did he call or write to Leah. She didn't even know if he was alive or not. Then, all of a sudden, he turns back up in la Push, and, boy, has he changed! Sam was maybe five foot ten when he disappeared. When he comes back, guess how tall he is?"

Bella shrugged.

"Six foot four," Jacob says, leaning forward. "It may not seem like a big deal, but no one in Sam's family has ever been that tall. And, Bells, Sam came back _jacked_. Dude could hold his own in a fight before, but now he looks like he could pick a person up and skip them like a stone on a river."

"Jesus," Bella murmured, shivering as a cool breeze washed over her, blowing her and Jacob's hair all around her heads, and in sync they raise a hand to push the strands back. "So, what happened with them and Leah?"

"Sam comes back to La Push, and no one except my dad and the others knew that he was back for several days. They kept it real quiet. Leah finds out that he's been back and she goes _off,_ rightfully so in my opinion. They fight, and Leah forgives him, and - "

"You don't sound too happy about that." Bella smirked as Jacob blushed. "You soft on her or something?"

"Let me finish the story!" Jacob snapped instead of answering the question. Bella raised her hands in surrender. "Leah forgives him, and it seems like maybe they're back on track to being married. Well, that lasts for about a week. Leah comes home from work one day, and what does she find? Sam fucking Emily in Leah's bed."

"Okay, so, having sex with another girl in his fiancé's bed? Cold blooded by itself. But who is Emily to Leah? Why is she so important?"

"Emily is Leah's cousin and best friend."

Bella chokes.

"Yeah, exactly!" Jacob looked absolutely disgusted by the entire situation. "Leah and Sam fight again, this time with Emily in the mix trying to make excuses for herself. Sam starts spouting all this bullshit about how he had never wanted to hurt Leah, but he didn't want to marry her anymore because he wanted to be with Emily. Now, here's the real kicker. Leah's parents, Harry and Sue, knew that Sam was interested in Emily since the day he got back from wherever the hell he disappeared too. When Leah found out about that, on top of walking in on Sam and Emily, she was practically foaming at the mouth. Damn near ripped Emily's eyes out.

"The entire thing was months ago. But the reason it's still going strong is because people have been picking sides, and Sam's side seems to be very popular."

"That's bullshit," Bella snarled, incredibly defensive over a childhood friend that she hadn't interacted with in a decade. Maybe it was because she, herself, had been so recently screwed over by a man and knew what it felt like to be so utterly disrespected, but her veins pumped viciously with red hot anger at the thought of Emily living large despite being a home wrecker. "Sam's a piece of shit and anyone who supports him is trash by association."

"That's what I said!" Jacob exclaimed, shooting up from his seat on the tree and pounding his fist into his palm. "If Sam didn't want to be with Leah, all he had to do, literally all he had to do, was just _say so_. Instead, he strings her along and fucks her cousin. And he doesn't just fuck her cousin, no, he fucks her in Leah's bed! And now he's walking around here, him and Emily both, demanding Leah's forgiveness as if they haven't publicly humiliated her, as if they haven't betrayed her, as if they did nothing wrong!"

"I can't believe her own parents aren't on her side," Bella said with a scowl. "They're her parents! It's their job to be on her side in situations like this! Charlie would've rammed Edward off the road if he did something like that to me."

Jacob scowled as well, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Well, apart from his little disappearing act, I guess people feel bad for Sam because he's been doing his best to clean up the Uley name is entire life. His dad was a deadbeat, see, a drunk and abusive to Sam and his mom, so he's bee doing a lot of volunteer work. Helping old ladies, doing good in school, helping the younger kids out, that kind of thing. I heard he even ran a drug dealer out of town. I guess they figured he's earned one fuck up for all his hard work."

Jacob's snide tone and scrunched up face tells Bella exactly where Jake thought Sam could shove all his hard wor.

"Something else is bothering you," Bella guessed, standing too. "What's up, Jake?"

He's silent for a few minutes, and Bella waits patiently for him to gather his thoughts. Finally, he sits back down and Bella follows.

"Sam's been...looking at me weird."

"W-What?" Bella stammered. "Weird how?"

"He," the noise that emits from Jacob's chest can only be described as a growl. "He keeps looking at me as if he's waiting for something! And it's not just him, it's his creepy ass friends, Paul and Jared, too. They just stand and watch me. The other day, when we were looking for you, after Sam gave you to Charlie, he just stood there staring at me expectantly. I've told me dad about it, and what did he have to say? Nothing helpful, just told me to ignore it.

"Hey," Bella whispered, frowning at the violent way Jacob's arms and shoulders shake, as if he's vibrating. "Hey, listen to me. Are you listening?" Jacob's head jerks up and down in a nod. "I know I haven't been a very good friend lately, but all that changes today. I was planning on bringing brownies to Sam on Sunday to thank him for finding me in the woods, but if you want me to, I can poison them.

Jacob's shaking comes from laughter now.

"You'd really poison them?"

"Of course! Bella Swan is a bringer of justice."

"My hero!"

Bella knocks her shoulder against his.

"I'm serious, Jake. If Sam's making you uncomfortable..."

"I'll deal with it," Jake sighs, kicking his right leg back and forth. "Somehow."

* * *

"Gotta admit, I was real surprised to see you and your dad on this side of town," Billy says as Bella finishes washing the last of the dishes and packing up the remaining food in Tupperware for Billy and Jake to eat later.

"Yeah, well, we had some ass kissing to do," Bella smiled. "He did his part already, and now it's time for me to do mine."

After placing the last container in the fridge, Bella turns to face Billy head on.

"And what would you be apologizing for?" Billy says, as if he already doesn't know what mess she got herself into.

"For not listening to you when you tried to warn me. You were right, Billy, when you said they were dangerous. That they'd hurt me. And, yeah, maybe they didn't personally hurt me physically, but emotional scars are scars all the same. You gave me a heads up, went out of your way to do so, and I still didn't take you seriously. And for that, I apologize."

"Hm," Billy sniffed. "I suppose you've learned your lesson now?"

"Big time." Bella laughed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'd like to limit my time spent with the - "

Bella and Billy both turn their heads to look out the window where Charlie and Jacob were outside talking, wanting them to be out of earshot for what she was about to say next.

"The supernatural," Bella finished.

"Good. I'm glad you've seen the error of your ways. I trust we won't have a repeat incident?"

"No repeat incidents," Bella swore. "Scouts honor."

Soon after, Bella and Charlie are on their way home, Jacob and Billy disappearing from sight as they drive down the road. They're both exhausted, ready to crash into their beds and get ready for the next day.

As they cross the border separating La Push from Forks, Bella reaches over and grabs her father's free hand and squeezes. He smiles down at her.

They were going to be okay.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

* * *

Charlie pressed his lips together tightly to prevent himself from laughing at Bella as she eyed the box of worms warily. He and Bella had made plans to go fishing that weekend, and he was surprised that she actually meant it. When she was little, Bella didn't like fishing, and would instead stay with Jacob and the other kids on the reservation whenever he, Billy, and Harry went out on the lake. It felt strange having her here, no longer a small child but now a young woman. Strange in a good way; he felt like maybe it wasn't too late to create good memories with her.

"Come on, Bells," Charlie laughed.

Bella shook her head vehemently. "I'm not touching that. It's so slimy! Why can't you put it on?"

"How are you going to learn how to do it if I do it for you?"

"I won't need to know how to do it because I'll always have you to do it for me," Bella grumbled, and Charlie grinned.

Bella held out shaking hands, Charlie's voice guiding her.

"Don't hold your fingers so close to the hook, there you go. Now, grab a worm from the box." Bella shot him a dark look, but did as he said, spine shivering as the worm wriggled in her grasp. She looked like she wanted to throw the worm and the entire box into the river and go back to the pier. "Now, use the hook to put a hole in one end of the worm."

It took her a few tries, as she kept dropping the worm when it would coil around her fingers, but eventually she got it.

"Ugh," Bella groused.

"Practice makes perfect," Charlie said cheerfully, helping Bella straighten her fishing line and cast it out, and then doing his own.

The sun beamed down on them, and Charlie was glad that Bella made them put on several layers of sunscreen, as well as wear hats to protect their faces from the sun.

Out there on the water with Bella, watching the way she seemed to relax on the water, her body gently rocking back and forth with the current, Charlie wondered how often Bella got to just relax when she was with Renee. They hadn't had a chance to talk more about Renee's parenting skills or lack thereof, and Charlie desperately wanted to confront it. While normally he'd avoid all talks of Renee so he could ignore the feeling of sadness in his gut at how abruptly she left him, it wasn't about him now, at least not directly. It was about Bella being denied a childhood and having to be an adult since the day she was old enough to walk.

"Hey," Charlie said, glancing over at her. Bella looked up from where she'd been watching the lake ripple. "Will you tell me more? About -"

"About life with Renee?" Bella guessed, stomach twisting. Despite all her talk of wanting to be more open with her father, she was stil hesitant to delve deeper into her time with Renee down in Arizona. Her parents hadn't parted on the best of terms, and Bella worried that if Charlie found out just how chaotic Bella's childhood had been due to Renee's inability to be an adult, he'd fly to Florida to give her mother a piece of his mind. But at the same time, she couldn't keep burying everything down.

Charlie nodded, and he looked as scared as she felt.

"I don't know where to start," Bella chuckled. "I guess from the beginning, when I was tall enough to see over the stove. She may have been my mother biologically but a lot of the time it felt like I was the mom and she was the child. I had to take care of her, you know. I had to make sure the bills got paid, apply to jobs for her whenever she decided to quit her current one on a whim, which was ridiculously often. I had to cook, clean, do everything. Mom was just...I guess she wanted to be carefree, to never have to worry about anything, but I don't think she realized that she couldn't do that with a child."

Charlie tensed, but said nothing. He would never let Bella know, well, maybe not never but at least not right now, that he'd been reading parenting books lately. He wanted to improve his relationship with his daughter, wanted her to feel comfortable and safe with him. Something he could clearly recall reading was that, when the child is opening up about a sensitive topic, it's best not to give unsolicited advice, or else they'd clam up. And so, Charlie wanted quietly for Bella to gather her thoughts before she spoke again.

"She didn't hit me. I didn't know if you were wondering, but just in case you were, I wanted you to know that she never hit me. But just because she didn't hit me doesn't mean she didn't hurt me in other ways. She was never there for me, physically, or emotionally. It was always about her problems. About how awful her job was because they wouldn't let her take another three week vacation so soon after her last one. About her boyfriend who she'd break up with in a week or two anyways. There was always a spotlight on her life, and for a long time I never questioned it.

"I started to resent her around the seventh grade," Bella admits, surprised at how great it felt to get that off her chest. Instantly her body feels ten pounds lighter. "I felt guilty for resenting her, you know? She drove me insane but I felt bad for feeling that way because I thought that I needed to be grateful to her. I remember being so angry, all the time, although I hid it well. I couldn't go to birthday parties, sleepovers, not even to a friend's house for a couple of hours after school. She'd whine about how I was abandoning her, about how much she needed me. I kept turning invitations down and eventually...people stopped inviting me."

Bella remembers with a startlingly amount of clarity on that one specific day in the seventh grade, where Hayley was inviting people to her bowling party which would turn into a sleepover after. Bella remembers wriggling in her seat, excited to receive an invitation, because she was so sure that she'd be able to go this time. Her mother had just gotten a new boyfriend, which meant that she was on a high, and that, for a couple of weeks, she'd have her new man to take care of her instead of her daughter. Imagine her surprise when Hayley's eyes skipped right over Bella, and the blonde girl had walked right past her seat, handing an invitation to the girl behind Bella.

She'd been devastated.

So distraught, Bella had snuck out of the school during lunch and had walked home, the sun beaming down on her head the entire way. When the school had called to report her absence, her mother hadn't even noticed.

"I'm sorry, Bells." Charlie murmured, reaching over to squeeze her hand. He paused before gaining the confidence to ask his question, "Did...did Renee have a lot of boyfriends when you were growing up?"

At Bella's arched eyebrow, Charlie made sure to clarify, "I'm not jealous, I swear. I'm just concerned at the type of environment that would create for a child. I know that I wasn't there as often as I would have liked to be, and so I would hope that with Renee you would have had some stable, positive male figure in your life."

Bella laughed, "Oh, if only."

Charlie tensed.

"Mom's boyfriends were always super creepy. They'd leer at me or always try to sit next to me on the couch. I made sure to stay in my room with the door locked as much as I could." Bella chuckled. "I kept a pair of scissors under my pillow, too, just in case."

Charlie wondered how quickly he could get to the airport to catch the next flight to Florida to kick down Renee's front door. He wasn't a violent man by nature, but hearing that his daughter had felt unsafe in her own home, hearing that she might have been sexually abused for years while Renee was too airheaded to notice? Made his blood boil.

"Luckily, none of them ever tried to touch me," Bella shrugged. "I learned to deal with it. I remember being so relieved when she met Phil. He was actually a decent guy, not just there for a quick lay. He actually cared about mom, and he took care of her. Honestly, mom's desire to travel and Phil's job requiring him to travel worked out so well for me, because it gave me an excuse to come here. They're still in their honeymoon phase so they _really_ didn't want me around.

"Anyways, that's why it was so hard for me to adjust when I got here. I'd gotten so used to having to run an entire household by myself that it never occurred to me that you wouldn't need me to baby you. It took some getting used to, but it's a very nice change. Honestly, I hate paying bills. I don't know how you do it. Every month? That's wild."

Charlie laughed, forcing his fingers to relax from their clenched position around his fishing rod. "As long as you're under my roof, I'll be the one babying you. Get ready to for me to catch up on 17 years worth of embarassment that I missed out on."

"Oh, God," Bella grinned. "Nothing too humiliating, please? I already get enough from everyone about my zombie state after Edward left." She said it so casually that Charlie was stunned, but before he could address it, she's moving on. "Speaking of dating lives, how come you never remarried?"

Charlie flushed. "Let's focus on the river."

"No, no, no," Bella said. "Don't try to get out of this. We can talk and watch the river. It's this great new thing called multitasking."

"My love life is none of your business."

"Except it is," Bella nudged him with her shoulder. "Come on, Dad. Throw me a bone. We're getting to know each other better, right?"

Charlie sighed. Scrubbed a hand down his face.

"I know a lot of people don't think so, but I got over your mom. Does it still hurt a little that she left the way she did? Of course. I mean, she left in the middle of the night while I was sleep. All she left me was a crappy note with a bullshit apology. She said she felt trapped in this small town, and that she didn't understand why I didn't want to move yet."

"Why didn't you want to move?"

"You were just a baby at the time so you wouldn't remember, but my parents were very sick. My dad had severe arthritis, and my mom was in the early stages of Alzheimer's. It was bad, Bells. Dad couldn't move very well, and mom was getting worse every week. They needed me there to take care of them. Renee wanted me to put them in a nursing home, and I think that's the only time I ever yelled at her. I heard what happens in nursing homes, how the people there get abused and neglected. I didn't want that to happen to my parents, I wanted to be there for as long as I could before they passed, and she didn't understand that.

"I don't want you to think that the entire thing was her fault," Charlie emphasized. "She had depression, and it only got worse after she gave birth. And don't make that face, it wasn't your fault, either. Postpartum depression hit her hard, and she wanted to leave Forks. She wanted to go somewhere sunnier. I understood why she wanted to go, but I couldn't make the choice that she wanted me to. She was convinced that I didn't love her as much as I said I did, and that accusation hurt. My parents were dying, Bells."

"Hey," Bella murmured. "I'm not angry at you for choosing to stay in Forks with grandma and grandpa. You don't have to explain yourself to me."

Charlie stared hard at the water. "I cried when she left, you know? I couldn't believe it. And she had taken you! I woke up, and you were both gone. I didn't hear from her for weeks, I thought you two were dead in a ditch somewhere. I was so angry with her. Leaving me was her right, I wasn't going to hold her hostage, but she could have been considerate enough to call me at least one during those weeks to let me know that you were okay. When she finally did call, I didn't even know how to deal with it. She moved to Arizona, back with her parents, and she said that I'd be allowed to visit. I couldn't even fight for custody because all my money was in the house that I had bought us, and into caring for my parents.

"A few months after she left, my parents died. Since then I just focused my time on visiting you, seeing Billy, Harry, and Quil, and moving up in my career. I never made time for dating because I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Bella asks. "You're a good guy, not too bad looking -" Charlie glared, and she smiled up at him, " - and you're sweet. I don't think you need to be afraid of rejection."

"I'm afraid that I was boring," Charlie admitted. "Renee had been obsessed with spontaneity and was always on the go, and I'm a stationary kind of guy. Living in a small town makes a guy build routines that I rarely deviate from. Going to parties, going to the clubs, that lifestyle just wasn't for me. Not to mention that I'm a man with a nearly adult daughter."

"Hey," Bella said firmly. "You gotta get back out there! I'm not saying you have to do anything extreme like start clubbing or anything, but at least go out on some introductory dates! You think you don't have people lining up to spend one on one time with you, and, buddy, you are _wrong_. Do you know how many women have waxed poetic about you to my face? I'm scarred, Dad. Scarred for _life_. They'd be all over you like white on rice if given half the chance."

"Oh, God," Charlie flushed bright red. "Let's not talk about this anymore."

"I know you have to like _someone_," Bella said. "Look, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. All I'm saying is, if there's someone who you've had your eye on, who you want to get to know a little better, give it a shot. Okay?"

Bella waited until her father turned to look at her, a small smile blossoming on his face.

"Okay," he agreed.

Bella's fishing rod was nearly snatched out of her hand, her fingers clamping down on it to keep it from flying off into the water.

"I think I got one!"

* * *

Bella spent the rest of Saturday thinking about Jacob's situation with Sam. The entire thing was just confusing, and Bella wasn't sure if it was because she was an outsider to the community itself, if there was missing information, or both. She couldn't, for the life of her, figure out how Sam had so much sway in the La Push community to the point where Jacob's own father was brushing aside his concerns. It seemed like Sam held quite a bit of power on the reservation, which was strange, because Bella figured that, if the community was going to start holding anyone's word as law, it would be Jacob. She may not know a lot about the history of La Push, but she knew that Jacob was a direct descendant of Ephriam Black, who was the leader of the tribe way back when.

She was worried about her friend. He'd grown increasingly distressed in just the twenty four hours since she'd last seen him. He'd sent her a string of text messages ranting about being followed by Sam and his crew, about them staring holes into his back. And it wasn't just Jacob who Sam was harassing. Jacob reported that Sam was watching Quil, too. The only consolation, however slight, was that Sam didn't give two fucks about Embry.

Bella didn't want to go running to her Dad with the information yet. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but it was the fact that Jacob's own father wasn't taking the matter seriously. She didn't want to to screw up her dad and Billy's relationship yet again, at least not without figuring out why Billy wasn't concerned about Sam. Bella knew it wasn't her place to question Billy's parenting skills, and yet...

It was hard to even put a label on what Sam and his friends were. She didn't want to call it a cult. She just didn't understand how Sam and his friends would disappear for weeks, even months, and then come back looking like every Dwayne Johnson on steroids. Bella wanted concrete proof that Sam was up to something, and when she had that proof, she'd go to her dad, since clearly Billy wasn't going to do anything.

Which was why, when Bella and Charlie came back from fishing early afternoon, she took a shower and then immediately baked a huge tray of brownies.

"You heading out?" Charlie looked up from rinsing out his cup as Bella slipped on her shoes and jacket.

"Yeah, I'm gonna give these brownies to Sam and his friends as a thank you for finding me in the woods, and then I might swing by Jake's for a bit. Is that okay?"

Asking for permission to go somewhere was such a wild concept. With her mother, Bella didn't really have to ask to go anywhere; if she needed to go to the bank to pay the bills or to the grocery store, she just _went_. Now, it was a different story. Her dad allowed her a tremendous amount of freedom, but he still had rules that he was more strict about ever since the Edward situation. She was actually grateful for the structure.

"Make sure you bring your homework with you. You and Jake can study together."

Bella holds up her backpack to show that she was thinking the exact same thing. She was glad that her relationship with her father had improved to the point where he felt comfortable making sure she got her school work done. It was a nice feeling to know that an adult in her life was watching over her instead of the other way around.

"Have fun," Charlie says. "Don't stay out too late. And tell Billy I said hi."

"Will do," Bella calls over her shoulder, tray of brownies carefully balanced in her arms as she shoulders her way out the door to her truck.

The drive to La Push gives her time to think about what she's going to say to Sam. She didn't know him well enough to demand why he was harassing Jacob, not that she'd ever have the guts to do something like that anyways. Besides, she doubts Sam would listen to her if she told him to leave Jacob alone. She didn't have to know him personally to know that Sam seemed like the type of guy who expected things to go his way, and wouldn't be happy with Bella for challenging that. Hell, she'd already learned that from hearing about what happened with Leah and Emily.

Bella drummed her fingers against the steering wheel, the open window allowing the breeze to whip her hair around her cheeks.

She'd gotten the directions to Sam's house from Billy's over dinner the other night, and found it easily. It was tucked behind a wall of trees, the little dirty road veering sharply to the right. Bella was sure that her truck easily alerted Sam to her presence. She parks and hops out, leaving her school things in the car and grabbing the brownies.

Her foot hasn't even settled on the top stair before the door swings open, a tall, buff, angry man standing in the threshold.

"The hell are _you_ doing here, paleface?" the man snarls, and Bella is so stunned that she can do nothing but gape at him, her knuckles white around the tray.

_"Paul,"_ came a sharp reprimand from further inside the house, the voice so deep and authoritative that even Bella felt slightly scolded. 'Paul' huffs angrily and steps to the side, allowing a man to step into her line of sight. Bella realizes that this is Sam. The room behind him is what Bella assumes is the dining room and kitchen, with a third man sitting at the round table, stuffing his face with muffins. He was shirtless, barefoot, and in a pair of raggedy cut denim shorts.

Actually, they all were. Her eyes flicked down to the hard planes of Sam's chest before flicking back up to hit face. Sam's arched eyebrow lets her know that she wasn't subtle at all. He waved her inside, and she pushed that train of thought away. Bella didn't have time to ponder their matching outfits, or why they all had the exact same tattoo on the exact same arm in the exact same place. Being in Sam's house, surrounded by their matching outfits and tattoos, she was beginning to think that Jacob was right about this being a cult.

Bella realizes she's been standing awkwardly in the middle of Sam's dining room slash kitchen for at least three minutes, and she hurriedly clears her throat, ignoring the way Paul stands behind Sam, clearly annoyed by her existence.

"I, uh, just wanted to say thanks for taking the time out of your day to come look for me in the woods that night I went missing. I really appreciate you helping out my dad, so I made enough brownies for you and your friends."

Bella holds out the tray towards Sam, intending to let him grab it and then make a quick exit, craving the safety of her truck. However, the universe has other plans. The second she holds the tray out, Paul's previous bout of rage comes to an abrupt halt, and she's just barely able to get the words out before he's shoving Sam aside and snatching the tray of brownies out of her hand.

"Sorry about them," Sam grumbles as Paul hustles over to the table where he and the other man eagerly dig in, sending them both an unimpressed look. "And no problem."

Sam eyes her more closely now, and asks, "What happened in the woods, anyways?"

The tone of his voice makes Bella feel like his question was more of an interrogative demand. She bristles a bit at it, but it unwilling to call him out on it; there was no doubt in her mind that Paul would jump at the chance to rip her throat out. And, normally, she wouldn't feel too inclined to share the information of her breakup with a man she barely knew. Also, Jake didn't like him, and she was all for friend solidarity. However, Sam had gone out of his way to look for her, and she at least owes him a minor explanation.

"The Cullens," Bella says, the mention of the name making Paul and Jared tense. "I don't know them?"

"We know of them," the mystery man growls.

"Right," Bella said slowly. "Anyways, I was dating Dr. Cullen's son, Edward. He said he wanted to go for a walk, so we did, and when we got into the woods, he broke up with me and left me there. I tried to find my way back but I got lost."

"What did he say?" Sam questioned.

"Say?" Bella frowned.

"Why did they leave?"

After a few days to step back from the situation and look at it from outside her own relationship with Edward, a lot of the reasons that he gave were, admittedly, reasonable; for example, Carlisle would never be able to pass for anything older than thirty, and even that was a miracle.

"Dr. Cullen got a better job offer somewhere else, and Edward wasn't one for long distance relationships."

"Did they say anything about coming back?"

Bella shrugged. "Edward said they weren't, but he also left me in the middle of the woods when it was starting to get dark outside, so I wouldn't much too much value into his words."

The look on Sam's face made Bella feel like he wanted to interrogate her further, but his gaze snapped from her to the door, and he straightened, face immediately softening.

Bella turns as the door opens, and in steps a woman with long black hair and a collection of deep, jagged scars on her face. Bella immediately rips her eyes away from the woman's face and focuses on the wall next to her, wishing she could evaporate.

"Emily," Sam says, and it's like Bella isn't even standing in the middle of his house anymore. He moves right past her to sweep the woman into his arms and kisses her soundly, peppering her face with affection. Jared and Paul send out a muffled greeting through a mouthful of junk food.

"I think I should go," Bella mumbles, trying to ease around Emily and Sam, who were very much blocking the front door.

"Nonsense," Emily beams, and Bella once again refuses to focus too long on her face. Sam seems to relax even further at the action. "I insist that you stay for lunch."

"I wouldn't want to impose," Bella insisted.

"Don't worry about it," Emily says, already easing herself out of Sam's arms and moving to the kitchen, getting food out of the fridge. "Don't let Paul make you feel unwelcome."

Paul protests, sending a betrayed glare in Emily's direction that he quickly erase from his face as a rumbling noise comes from within Sam's chest. Bella wonders what she did to be cornered like this.

She can't be rude and leave, she'd never hear the end of it.

Which is how she ends up squished between Jared and Sam at the tiny little dining room table that was barely big enough to contain three men built like tanks, and certainly couldn't contain said men _and_ two additional people. Sam made sure Paul was on the opposite side of the table, and Bella was extremely grateful. She didn't think she'd be able to maintain her composure if she had to actively soak in the hatred that was radiating off him in waves.

Emily is sitting next to Sam, having just put the last of the food on the table, food which she absolutely refused to let Bella help make as she was the guest. There were plates piled high with hamburgers and hot dogs, and a huge pitcher of lemonade.

Bella wondered if she'd be lucky enough to get a piece of a hot dog bun; she'd seen the way Paul and Jared (he'd actually been polite enough to introduce himself and hadn't tried to burn a hole in her forehead like Paul) had torn apart the muffins and brownies, and if that was how they always were around food, she was content to stay far away lest she lose an arm.

Proving her point, Paul's hand darts out to yank the plate of burgers to himself. Sam's hand comes down quick and hard on Paul's the sharp crack sending a shiver down Bella's spine. Paul yanks his hand back and glowers, but doesn't try to grab the food again.

"You know the rules," Sam's voice rumbles. "Ladies eat first. Don't act cute just because Bella is here."

It's only by the grace of God that Bella manages to contain the chuckle-snort that tries its damndest to get out.

Bella lets Emily go first, and then she grabs two hot dogs for herself, pouring herself a glass of lemonade as well. The second she sets the pitcher down, the men dig in. Bella's first hot dog is halfway to her mouth as she pauses to watch in horror as Paul, Jared, and Sam pile their plates high with food. She didn't know it was possible for one person to consume seven burgers.

"Sorry about them," Sam said, and Bella jumped in surprise. He nodded over to where Paul and Jared were eating, already grabbing more food for their plates. "They act like they've never had food before."

"We do not," argued Jared through a mouth full of food.

"Don't speak with your mouth full!" Emily scolded, and Jared flushed.

Bella's eye flicked towards the front door, wondering if she'd be able to make it outside without tripping. Not likely, seeing as how Jared and Paul's huge bodies were blocking the narrow walkway.

"The paleface looks like she wants to make a run for it," Paul sneered. "What's the matter? Afraid of the natives? Thinking about running us over with your truck?"

"Fuck off," Bella snapped. "The only one here who I want to hit with my truck is _you_."

There's a moment of silence, and Bella blushes.

Jared starts laughing, cackling at the startled look on Paul's face. Emily hides a smile behind her own burger.

"She told you," Jared snickered.

"You do look uncomfortable, Bella," Emily notes.

Bella tries to word her response very carefully, "I appreciate you inviting me to stay for lunch, but...I don't really know you all that well, and my first interaction wasn't too stellar."

"We try not to take Paul outside, I'm sure you understand," Jared grins, twisting his body to avoid Paul's fist. "He's a bit uncivilized, it can't be helped. We're trying to correct the behavior, believe me, we are."

"Fuck off." Paul barked, snatching a hot dog from Jared's hands. "Just because I'm not waiting on the girl hand and foot doesn't mean I'm an asshole."

"It kind of does if you refuse to even use her name," Emily said sweetly.

There was a clear power dynamic that Bella could see. Sam was the alpha of the group, the head honcho, the one in charge. His word was law, and whenever there was a decision that needed to be made, all eyes fell on him. Emily had power, of that Bella was certain, but she also knew that if Emily wasn't Sam's girlfriend, Paul and Jared wouldn't listen to a word she said. It was difficult to determine whether Jared was above Paul or the other way around.

The entire group of men were intense, though, and Bella could understand why their presence made Jacob uncomfortable. Sam _seemed_ nice enough - if you ignored the fact that he cheated on his previous fiance with her cousin and was now engaged to said cousin - but there was something _off_ about him. Something about Sam made goosebumps rise on her skin, made her stomach turn. The last time she had a gut reaction like this was when she first met the Cullens. Maybe...

Bella pushed that thought away immediately. There was no way Sam was a vampire. The fact that she even entertained the thought, even if just for a second, was ridiculous.

Jared's voice shook her out of her musings.

"So, Swan, you doing anything later?"

Paul made a gagging noise, and Bella briefly entertained the idea of beaming her last hot dog at his head.

"Stop harassing her, Jared," Sam grumbled, pouring himself another glass of lemonade. "She doesn't even know you."

"She could get to know me," Jared waggled his eyebrows in Bella direction.

"Actually," Bella said, scooting her chair back a bit. "I'm studying with Jacob tonight. I should head over. Can I help you clean up before I go, Emily?"

"That'd be wonderful, thank you, Bella," Emily smiled, and Bella carefully angled her eyes away from her face.

The next twenty minutes were the most intense twenty minutes of her life. She couldn't speed through the clean up because then she'd look like she was in a hurry to get out of her. And she _was_, but she didn't want to make it obvious. She also had to answer any questions Emily or Jared threw at her. Sam and Paul had stepped out, disappearing to go do whatever it is two grown men did in the middle of the night in nothing but cut off denim shorts. Bella wished she had the balls to follow them.

Once the clean up was done, Jared walked Bella to her truck.

"Are you and Jacob close?" Jared asked suddenly.

"He's my best friend," Bella said honestly. "Actually, I have something I need to ask you, it's about Jacob." Jared arched his eyebrow and she continued, "Sam...Sam isn't going to hurt Jacob, right?"

Jared's face darkened, and Bella knew she had made a mistake.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Bella held her hands up in a placating gesture. "Listen, I'm not going to pretend to know what goes on in La Push. But Jacob is my friend, and I don't like seeing him uncomfortable or scared. So just...can you promise me Sam isn't going to hurt Jacob?"

Jared stared at her for a long while, and his face softened a bit.

"I promise. And I won't mention this conversation to Sam, either."

"Thank you." Bella's smile was genuine this time, and she got into her truck.

Jared watched her drive away, his form slowly disappearing from her mirror.

* * *

"It felt like I stepped into _The Twilight Zone_," Bella complained to Jacob later that evening, the two of them sprawled out on his porch. It was a cool night, and Bella preferred to be out in the open space rather than under Billy's watchful eye. "You were right about something being up with Sam. I just don't know what, though."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees it," Jacob says, thumbing through his history textbook, rough draft of his essay finished on the chair next to him. "I still can't believe you made Jared promise Sam wouldn't hurt me."

"At least he seemed to take me seriously, which is more than I can say about some people."

Jacob's eyes flick towards the house and then back to hers.

"I just wish I knew what they wanted. If they wanted me to join their cult, wouldn't they have asked by now?"

"Maybe they want to feed you to Paul," Bella giggled. "God, he was so intense! I don't even know the guy but he's somehow already my mortal enemy."

Jacob laughs. "At least he didn't attack you. I heard from Embry that Paul didn't even get to finish high school because he had an aggression problem."

"Are you telling me I spent an entire afternoon with a man prone to breaking jaws?!"

"Hey, you're the one that wanted to go over there and give them brownies."

Bella rolled her eyes, uncrossing her legs and stretching them out in front of her, groaning when her knees crackled a bit.

"It wouldn't have been so bad if Emily hadn't insisted that I stay for lunch. I couldn't leave without looking like a total asshole, and the last thing I need is to make more enemies. Half the female population at my school already hate me. I see what you mean about the staring, though. Every time I made eye contact with Sam or the others it felt like I was seconds away from turning into stone."

"What did you even talk about? It's not like you guys have anything in common."

"Lunch was just smalltalk. Emily wanted to get to know me better and I guessed Sam humored her and played along. Before lunch, though, Sam wanted to know about the Cullens."

"The Cullens? Why did he want to know about them? It's not like he knew them personally. Actually, I doubt anyone on the rez ever met the guy."

"He was super interested in why they left," Bella frowned. "He wanted to know if they were coming back. And, you know, if anyone else had asked me about the Cullens and if they ever planned on returning to Forks, I'd understand, because Dr. Cullen was a great doctor and he did a lot of good work for the area. People were sad to see him go. But the way Sam was asking me made me feel like he'd be happier if the Cullens stayed gone."

Jacob shrugged. "A lot of people on the rez are wary of anyone from Forks in general. We don't have a lot of good history, as I'm sure you know."

Bella understood. The people on the reservation were well within their rights to be wary of white people, especially wealthy white people like the Cullens were. The history of La Push wasn't a pretty one, what with the tribes losing much of their land to colonizers and being shoved off somewhere else.

"I understand that, but there was something else there, I swear there was. Do you think there'd be any reason for Sam and the others to believe in the old legends?"

Jacob scoffed.

"Paul wouldn't listen to the old legends if you paid him. I don't know much about Jared. And I doubt Sam believes in them. It's only my dad and the other Elders who believe in that crap. To everyone else, they're just scary stories."

Bella wished there was someone else that knew about vampires. She would never tell Jacob, she knew that he didn't deserve to get involved in that, and she would never risk his life like that, but she wished she could talk supernatural theories with someone other than herself. She didn't think she was being paranoid about Sam thinking the Cullens were actually vampires. He knew something, or he was involved in something, and it was killing her to not know.

"You're probably right," Bella mumbled, vowing to look into it later. Jacob was already going through a lot, he didn't need her bullshit adding onto his.

"Am I going to see you again this week?"

"Most likely not," Bella replied. "Maybe Charlie and I will come over for dinner. I have a lot of work to do this week. I'm pulling extra hours at Mike's store, and then I'm having a sleepover with Jessica and Angela."

"Sleepover, huh?" Jacob leered.

"Ew," Bella laughed, throwing an eraser at his head. "Don't be gross, Jake."

"You should mention me to your friends, be my wing woman."

"I thought you were into Leah?"

Jacob flushed, swiftly turning away, long hair creating a curtain between them. He's suddenly very interested in his homework, shuffling the papers together and organizing them. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You want some girl advice? As a girl, I think I'm qualified for the job."

Jacob whips around so fast it makes Bella's own head spin. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course," Bella grinned. "Okay, so, first thing? Be her friend before you're anything else. All good relationships are based on a friendship foundation. Being her friends lets you get to know her better and vice versa, and it's in that stage where you see if there's actually a spark there. If there isn't, then you still have a friend for life. Let her make the first move. I'm not saying don't let her know you like her, but girls like to know that guys aren't waiting in the wings to pressure them into a relationship. Let her know you'll still be around even if she doesn't want to date you."

"That...that actually makes a lot of sense."

"You should try to hang out with her this week. Invite Seth, too, because it lets her know that you care for her and her loved ones. Besides, Seth idolizes you and would love to see you more."

"You're the best, Bells," Jacob said, hugging her tight.

"And don't you forget it."


End file.
